Bloodite Interview: Squall85
Interviewed by Tchernobog, August 8, 2008

Name: Tamás Tóth
Alternate Names: Squall85
Born: October 11, 1985 (age 22) 
Nationality: Hungarian
Location: Pécel, Hungary
Hobbies : Gaming (playing and making), movies

How and when did you discover Blood?
I was very young, about 12 years old, not much after the release of the game (according to Wikipedia). One day after school my friend invited me to his place. He had a PC, I only had an Amiga 500 that time so I wasn’t familiar with PC game titles. He showed me the game. I remember it was run from Norton Commander. He liked the game, the style was rather new in those days. I got to know with the colours, gore and humour of Blood. It was fun all together, I liked how the train run on me in the tunnel (E1M2: Wrong Side of the Tracks).

What made you want to make a Blood Flash Game?
Blood 2 wasn’t as good as Blood but I was a great fan on the first so I got into it too. I learned Macromedia Flash in those days and I quickly realized that it’s the easiest way to make a game that looks good (easy to create graphics) and easy to put some interactivity into it. I liked the game that much I wanted to add something to the series. The I started drawing Caleb, then the first scene, the house. I built it up one by one from ideas that were inspired by the game or ideas that came from somewhere else.

What was it like to develop the game?
 I wouldn’t call myself a game developer. Most of the guys who likes games and become a computer engineer wants to do games. I just found a great tool to do this. If there will be an opportunity in the future I’m sure I will try making real games.

 As I previously said, the game was built one by one. One thing after another. There was a concept about “Go the right way and you are OK, go the wrong way and you are dead meat.” I was only about 15 or 16 years old and I didn’t have much coding knowledge. I used the basics of Flash5. The first versions were a bit worse, I decided to do an upgrade. I changed a lot of graphics and fixed some bugs. As you can see, the “Lipsync” is not correct everywhere, that’s because the previous Caleb had his head at a different position.

Any plans for any further works, such as a new Blood Flash Game?
Absolutely yes! I do have plans but I don’t know how it will end. I started a remake of the Flesh Game with new controlling ideas but I felt it wasn’t as good as I planned. My coding skills increased during the years so I know I’m able to make a good shooting game. A platform kinda game with elements from Blood as much as I can put in. Dinamyte throwing, cultist killing. I will try to make it interesting with a story and little puzzles. So it’s not only about killing the good guys but find key, open gate, etc, etc...

What Blood specific stuff have you done recently or think about doing in the future?
 I got the idea I might create a blog for the development. Anyone could read how’s the development going and anyone could write comments ideas for the game. Monsters, levels or puzzles as well. By the way, I hate blogs. I hope it will go well. Not the blog but the development:
http://fleshgame.blogspot.com/

What do you think is the most interesting thing done by the Blood Community?
I thank the Blood community, especially the forum's that helped me with the proper unpacking/extracting of media from Blood games.

Besides Blood, what else do you use to fill your days?
I spend my time with my girlfriend, I’m doing stuff in Second Life, sometimes some reading or movie watching. But all the time I’m thinking about thing to create.

Do you have anything you wish to add to this interview?
Umm, I think all the questions were okay, I don’t have anything to add...

Before we end the interview, what is your favourite game in the Blood Series?
Blood was awesome, Blood 2 wasn’t as good, the voice acting was okay but I missed some actions during cutscenes. The Nightmare levels was fun but the Lithtech engine was a bit low, I didn’t like everybody was like the are blown up when killing with a single knife and after damaging all the furniture the rooms looked so empty. I managed to get the Plasma Pack and Cryptic Passage for Blood but didn’t have time for them. I love the music of Blood’s midi music and Blood 2’s music as well. So I think I like Blood the most.

Interviewer Note: Thank you for the informative interview. And thank you Yahoo Mail for putting all my response from squall85 in the bulk folder. - Tchernobog, August 9, 2008